Laos’ Plain of Jars, Myanmar’s Bagan considered for World Heritage inscription

The meeting runs from June 30 to July 10. 

The Plain of Jars – a megalithic archaeological site in the Laos province of Xiengkhuang – and Bagan city in Myanmar have both received positive evaluations from the International Council on Monuments and Sites for inscription, Unesco said. 

During its 43rd session, committee members comprising 21 states party to the Unesco 1972 Convention on the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage Sites will examine reports on the state of conservation of the nominated properties before deciding on whether they should be included in the World Heritage List. 

The Plain of Jars in the Xiengkhuang Plateau, containing 1,325 large stone jars that have been associated to funerary practices during the Iron Age (between 500BC to 500AD), is considered a “serial property” consisting of two or more unconnected but related areas. 

Located on the slopes and spurs surrounding the central plateau, the well-crafted jars required high technological skills for production and transport from quarries to the funeral sites. 

The property has been proposed for World Heritage inscription because it is an exceptional testimony to an Iron Age civilisation. The distribution of the megalith jars on the site is thought to be associated to the overland routes at the historical crossroads between the Mool-Mekong and Red River or Gulf of Tonkin systems, the UN said. 

Myanmar’s Bagan city, meanwhile, is a sacred landscape featuring an exceptional array of Buddhist art and architecture, demonstrating centuries of the tradition of Theravada Buddhist practice of merit-making. The monuments also provide dramatic evidence of the Bagan Period from the 11th to the 13th centuries. 

The town, located in the central dry zone of Myanmar, comprises 3,595 recorded monuments. 

Bagan’s complex, layered cultural landscape also incorporates living communities and contemporary urban areas. It was proposed for inscription as an exceptional living testimony to the Buddhist cultural tradition and as the peak of Bagan civilisation under criteria (iii), for containing an extraordinary ensemble of Buddhist monumental architecture under criteria (iv), and for being an exceptional example of living Buddhist beliefs and tradition of merit-making under criteria (vi), Unesco said.

Laos already has two World Heritage Sites – the ancient city of Luang Prabang inscribed in 1995 and the Hindu temple of Vat Phou in southern Champasak province in 2001. Myanmar's Bagan will become the second entry on the world heritage list as the Unesco added the ancient city fo Pyu to the list in 2014.